Management of a document database for page retrieval

ABSTRACT

A management system for enabling the creation and maintenance of a database wherein specially created document records, version records and page records are stored. Each page has a page record including the document name, the initial version number in which it is utilized, the last version number in which it is utilized and the date of submission. It also has a delete field to indicate its current status in the document and a field for the date of deletion. The records can include any other desired data upon which it may be desired to search the database and they can include data enabling assembly of the document with inserts, tabs, etc. when it is printed. The page records include a pointer to the location of a corresponding page file for print-on-demand and/or to a storage location for a plate for offset printing.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

U.S. Pat. No. 08/891,861, filed concurrently herewith, relates to asignature augmentation of PostScript comment structure.

This invention relates of document management records to management ofdocument production through the creation of a document database toenable cost effective printing of updated versions, the printing ofportions of the document and the printing of old versions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Large volumes of printed matter are usually produced by a process suchas offset printing. In offset printing, plates are produced for eachpage and the high initial cost associated with the production of platesis recovered by the large volume of pages produced from each plate.However, for low volume production, offset printing is expensive.Publications such as tax guides, patent examining guides, and many othersimilar publications, often using ring binders, may have relativelysmall portions of the whole publication updated and changed on a ratherfrequent basis. In such cases, offset printing of the updated materialmay not be economical. For low volume printing, computerizedprint-on-demand systems, frequently utilizing electrophotographictechnology, are considerably cheaper than offset printing.

Another cost factor in the publishing industry is the labor intensivenature of the operation, that is, when a document is produced, sometimescomprising several hundred pages, the plates that produced those pagesmay be stored so that if the document is later out of print, the platescan be retrieved to produce a new edition. In addition to storingplates, after printing the publication the pages must also be stored ina warehouse so that subsequent orders can be satisfied. Retrievingdocuments from a warehouse is labor intensive, particularly where thedocument includes frequent revisions. Those revisions must also beprinted, stored and retrieved to satisfy customer requirements which mayinclude the latest version, an earlier version, only the changed pagesof the latest version, or a sub-portion of a current or old version.After many iterations of this procedure, the result is several versionsand changed pages all of which are stored in a warehouse. When acustomer request is received, it requires locating the correct pages inthe warehouse and assembling them to meet the order. The process is notonly labor intensive, it is subject to human error. For insurancecompanies, assembling a policy often requires printing differentversions of the same clause for different jurisdictions. Over a periodof time, storage of policies and variations of them fill largewarehouses. Print-on-demand systems avoid the warehousing of documentsbut fail to provide a convenient management system for the retrieval andprinting of a particular version or part thereof.

The solution to these problems and the object of this invention is tocreate and maintain a document database, using the power and flexibilityof the database to manage the production of documents to satisfycustomer demands. In such manner, the document version or portionthereof can be retrieved at a later point in time for printing by themost economical process, either offset printing or print-on-demand.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention provides for the production and processing of documentmanagement data for creating and updating page characteristic records,such as a document record, a version record, and a page record for eachpage, together with a pointer to the actual page file. The records, oncecreated, are stored in a database with a pointer to the storage locationof the page file for print-on-demand publishing or for the production ofplates and/or to the storage location of plates for offset printing. Theactual page file can be either a page source file such as a PostScriptpage file or a page image file (bitmap of the page) that can be used tocreate a printed page (or to burn a typesetter's plate). In that manner,the page files or plates can be retrieved and printed at a later time inthe most economical manner. When new versions are created, documentmanagement data for each new or updated page are produced for creatingadditional page characteristic records. A separate update instructionfile is created for adding pages, updating pages or deleting pages. Whenpages are deleted from a new version, a delete flag is stored in thepage record for that particular page. For the pages that are reused inthe new version, a last version field of each page record is changed toindicate the latest (i.e., newest) version number in which that page isutilized. Each page record has an initial version field to identify theversion number in which it was first used and date fields to identifythe date the record was created and the date of deletion. In thatmanner, a list of pages active in any present or past version of thedocument can be produced by an appropriate database search. The variouspage characteristic records can include any data desired. For example, apage record for an insurance clause may contain a field identifying itwith a particular jurisdiction.

The above mentioned and other features and objects of this invention andthe manner of obtaining them will become more apparent, and theinvention itself will best be understood by reference to the followingdescription of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings, a description of which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the elements of a print-on-demandprinting system.

FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 are, respectively, a document record, a versionrecord, and a page record for pages in a document.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts of initial document and page characteristicrecord creation and storage in the database.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are flowcharts of the process for the creation of updatedor new pages and the creation of corresponding page characteristicrecords for storing them in the database together with setting deleteflags in the page characteristic records of those pages which are notused in the updated version.

FIG. 9 shows illustrative customer order processing to make use of thepage characteristic records created in FIGS. 5-8.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show processing for obtaining a list of pages to beprinted for a particular version. FIG. 10 pertains to the case where aparticular version is specified by the customer and FIG. 11 pertains tothe case where the customer specifies a version as of a particular date.

FIGS. 12 and 13 show processing for obtaining a list of the changedpages either in a particular version (FIG. 12) or in the version currentas of a particular date (FIG. 13).

FIG. 14 is the completion of order processing once the pages needed tosatisfy an order have been determined.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a print-on-demand system including a personal computer 10such as an IBM PS-2 for interacting with an author 9 or an editor 11 inthe creation of the pages of a document. The document created at thepersonal computer may be placed in appropriate page source files forprinting such as PostScript page files. Once generated, the page sourcefiles are sent to an update processor 8 for creating page characteristicrecords for storage in database 13. Update processor 8 also provides thepage source files to rasterizer processor 12 whose function is togenerate page image files (bitmaps) of each page of the document. Thesepage image files are used by a print driver 14 to drive the printer 15in the production of the printed output. In this embodiment of theinvention, however, the page image files generated by the rasterizer areplaced into the database 13 or into document storage 16 and stored thereuntil a print request is received from a customer 17. When received,access is made to the database by the order processor 18 in order toretrieve the desired page image files and have them printed. The updateprocessor 8, the rasterizer processor 12 and the print driver 14 mayreside on computers such as the IBM RISC 6000. The database 13 may be arelational database such as the IBM DB2. Such databases havesophisticated data mapping techniques and sophisticated search engineswhich typically utilize the Structured Query Language (SQL) to field andprocess database queries. The printer 15 may be an electrophotographicprinter such as the IBM 3900 printer. Print driver 14 may utilize asystem such as the IBM Print Services Facility (PSF). If page sourcefiles are stored instead of page image files, a rasterizer at printdriver 14 or printer 15 may produce the page image files needed forprinting at print time.

In order to achieve management of the page image files or page sourcefiles stored in the database 13 or in storage 16, the invention hereinprovides document management information in the print stream of the pagesource file generated at the personal computer 10. For example, if thedocument is generated in PostScript page files, document managementinformation to uniquely identify each PostScript page is placed in thecomment field of each PostScript page file and is sent from computer 10to the update processor 8 for inclusion in the database 13. In thatmanner, information needed to manage the retrieval and printing ofparticular page image files is included in the database and may besearched to retrieve a list of those pages required to satisfy a printrequest. While any needed information to manage the documents may beincluded in the comment field of the PostScript page file, the inventionis described with illustrative page characteristic records shown inFIGS. 2, 3 and 4.

The term page characteristic record is used herein as a term to identifya document record, version record or a page record. FIG. 2 shows adocument record with a field 20 which identifies the customer's name,the document name field 21 and a document number field 22. FIG. 3 showsa version record with fields identifying the document number 30, theversion number 31, a field 32 for the number of pages in the version andthe date and time fields 33 and 34 when the version was submitted. FIG.4, a page record, has a document number field 40, the page number field41, the initial version number field 42 which shows when the particularpage was first included in the document, the last version number field43 which shows the version number in which the particular page was lastincluded and the date and time fields 44 and 45 showing when the recordwas created. The pointer field 46 contains the storage address of thecorresponding page file. The delete field 47 is used to flag theparticular page when it is deleted from a new version and the deletedate field 48 identifies the date when the page was deleted.

Normally, interpreters of PostScript page files to produce page imagesfor printing ignore all comments. However, in the inventive system theupdate processor is enabled to read the PostScript headers and find thedata needed to create or update the page characteristic records. To dothat, a signature is included in the comment field used to build therecords; the signature is intended to provide the update processor withthe means for identifying document management data so that it can createthe page characteristic records needed to manage the order process.

An example PostScript commenting structure to implement the inventionis:

%%OutputTagElement:tag such that "tag" would be meaningful documentmanagement data. In order to be as general as possible, error checkingof the commenting structure is not performed at the interpreter level,but rather at a higher system level. Thus, the meaning of "tag" at theinterpreter level could be anything including Double Byte Character Set(DBCS) information, and is passed as is into the output data stream. Thesignature field is used to identify data following the signature asdocument management data. In the example the signature is"%%OutputTagElement:", where %% is the PostScript File comment prefixand OutputTagElement is the keyword. The update processor can use astring matching algorithm, such as the Bayer-Moore algorithm to identifythe signature. The tag can contain any character code except thecarriage return (CR) character or the line feed (LF) character. Eitherof those two characters terminate the tag information.

An example is:

%%Page 10 10

%%OutputTagElement:product=reporter

%%OutputTagElement:volume=sf23261

%%OutputTagElement:folio=sf23261.dat

%%OutputTagElement:page₋₋ number=23261

%%OutputTagElement:version=089-0

%%OutputTagElement:release₋₋ date=220994

%%OutputTagElement:release₋₋ time=16:24

In this invention the page characteristic records are created by theupdate processor from the document management data and stored with apointer to the corresponding page file having the content data (pageimage file or page source file.) The page file can later be retrievedusing the page characteristic record attributes. These attributes willcorrespond to the tags of the pages created when the document wascomposed by the author or editor in a page source file such as aPostScript page file. It should be noted that since the documentmanagement data are part of the PostScript comment structure, documentmanagement data are ignored by other PostScript devices which ignorecomments, such as the rasterizer 12.

In addition to header information for each page file created at computer10, the editor will also create a separate instruction file when updatesare created. The separate file, called a Document Update Instruction(DUI) file, contains instructions for adding data to database 13. Thelist of instructions may be as follows:

ADD DOC1 VERS 4 PAGE 1.2.1 DATE TIME FILENAME DELETE DOC1 VERS 4 PAGE6.2.4 DATE TIME REPLACE DOC1 VERS 4 PAGE 4.2 DATE TIME FILENAME

The ADD instruction identifies the document, version and the pagesequence number for the new page together with the date, time andfilename of the new page. The DELETE instruction identifies thedocument, version and page number of the page to be deleted. The REPLACEinstruction identifies the document, version and page number of the pagebeing replaced by an updated page together with the filename of thereplacement page. It should be observed that all deleted and replacedpages are retained in the database 13 or in document storage 16 so thataccurate retrieval of out-of-date versions can be accomplished at anylater point in time to satisfy a customer request.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts of the manner in which a document isinitially created and stored in database 13. A DUI file is not neededfor the initial version but document management data is included in theheader so that the update processor 8 can create the document record,the version record, and the page record for each original page. FIG. 5shows the activities carried out at the editor while FIG. 6 shows theactivities carried out at the update processor 8.

In FIG. 5, the document is created at step 50 and document managementdata together with the signature which identifies them as documentmanagement data, are created at step 51. Next the page files includingheaders are sent to the update processor as shown in step 52. The updateprocessor will probably be located at the print shop.

At the update processor, the data stream is searched at step 60 for thesignature of document management data in order to identify that data andbuild page characteristic records therefrom at step 61. Once the pagecharacteristic records have been built, the document is sent to therasterizer processor and rasterized at step 62 to produce page imagefiles of each page. The page image files are stored in database 13 or indocument storage 16 at step 63. A pointer to the storage location ofeach page image file is included in the page record stored in database13 at step 64. In that manner, each separate page image file of thedocument is stored as well as the page characteristic records that areneeded to identify that page image file and retrieve it in order tosatisfy a print request received at some future time.

In the document production process, authors and editors frequently makechanges to the initial document. Those changed pages include updatedpages and completely new pages as well as pages that are deleted. All ofthe changed pages must be identified for the next version and thereforea Document Update Instruction (DUI) file is created by the editor 11.Document management data for each new or updated page are also createdby the editor and placed in the comment field with the signatureidentifying document management data.

FIG. 7 shows the updating process that is carried out at the personalcomputer 10. First, the updated pages and the new pages are created asshown at step 70. New document management data marked with a signatureare created at step 71 and a DUI file created at step 72. At step 73,the new and updated page files and the DUI file are sent to the updateprocessor 8.

At the update processor, as shown in FIG. 8, the DUI file is processedline by line at step 80. At step 81, if it is determined that a replaceinstruction or delete instruction is present, the update processor willaddress the database at step 82 to update previously created pagecharacteristic records to set delete flags in the page record of eachpage replaced or deleted in the new version. At step 83, if it isdetermined that an add or replace instruction is present, the page fileidentified by filename in the DUI instruction line is processed tosearch for the signature of document management data, step 84. Oncefound the update processor builds page characteristic records at step85.

The new and updated pages are rasterized at step 86 to produce pageimage files of each new or updated page. At step 87, the new and updatedpage image files are stored in the database 13 or in document storage16. A pointer to the storage location of the page image file is includedin the page record in database 13 as shown at step 88.

Once all lines of instruction in the DUI file have been processed in theabove described manner, as determined at step 89, the pagecharacteristic records for the new pages in the new version are storedin database 13 at step 89A. At step 89B, the new version number isplaced into the last version field of each page record of pages in thedocument where the delete flag is not set. By not setting the deleteflag for those pages in the previous version which are repeated in thenew version, they are identified and the last version field is updatedaccordingly.

FIGS. 9-14 show the processing that occurs when a print request isreceived from a customer by the order processor 18. FIG. 9 shows theprocess for determining the nature of the print request in order toprepare the proper query for database 13. At step 90, it is determinedwhether the request is for a particular version of a document. If it is,at step 91, it is determined whether the date of the version has beenspecified by the customer. If it has, a query is prepared at step 97 toobtain a list of all pages current as of that date and a branch is madeto the processing shown in FIG. 11. If the date has not been specified,then in step 92, the query is asked whether the customer specified theversion number desired for printing. If it has not been specified, thelatest version is assumed at step 93, and in either case, a query isprepared at step 97 to obtain a list of all pages in that version and abranch is made to the processing shown in FIG. 10.

If it had been determined at step 90 that the customer had not requestedany specific version, then in step 94 the order processor determineswhether the request has been for particular changed pages. If therequest is for particular changed pages, at step 95 it is determinedwhether a date has been specified by the customer. If it has, a query isprepared at step 97 to obtain the changed pages and a branch is taken toFIG. 13. If no date was specified by the customer, at step 96 it isdetermined whether the customer has asked for changed pages in aparticular version. If they are, a query is prepared at step 97 toobtain the changed pages and a branch is made to FIG. 12.

FIG. 9 is illustrative of some types of requests that can be fielded bythe order processor of the invention but is far from all inclusive. If,for example, insurance clauses were being considered, then the orderprocessor would determine whether the request was for clauses needed fora particular jurisdiction. The type of processing shown in FIG. 9 can beexpanded greatly to cover any particular situation.

FIG. 10 shows the processing carried out to obtain a list of page imagefiles for a particular version when the version number has beenspecified in the customer request. At step 100, a query to the databaseis fielded and all page records in the document are retrieved in pagesequence order. At step 101, the first and last version fields of allpage records in the document are searched. At step 102, those certainpages are identified whose number in the first version field is equal toor less than the requested version number. For those certain pages, atstep 103 the last version field is inspected to identify which of thosecertain pages have the further characteristic of a last version numberequal to or greater than the requested version number. In that manner,the pages needed to satisfy the request are determined and the file nameof each of those page image files is placed on a list and retrieved inpage sequence as shown at step 104. A branch is taken to FIG. 14 where,at step 141, a printfile is assembled by retrieving all of the pageimage files on the list, and at step 142, the printfile is submitted tothe print driver for the production of printed output.

FIG. 11 shows the processing carried out to obtain a list of page imagefiles to satisfy a request for a particular version current as of acertain date and where the customer request supplies the date of theversion desired. At step 110, a query to the database is fielded toobtain all page records in the document in page sequence order. At step111, the date field of all page records in the document is searched. Atstep 112, those certain pages are identified whose date in the datefield is equal to or less than (i.e., before) the requested date. Atstep 113, the last version field of each of those certain pages issearched to identify the highest number in the last version field. Atstep 114, it is determined which of those certain pages have the furthercharacteristic of a number in the last version field equal to thehighest number. Those pages are placed on a list of page image filesneeded to satisfy the request at step 115 and a branch is taken to FIG.14 where the page image files are retrieved from document storage atstep 141 and submitted to the print driver at step 142.

FIG. 12 shows the processing to produce a list of those page image filesthat comprise changed pages (new or updated pages) in a specific versionnamed in the customer request. At step 120, a query to the database isfielded for a list of all pages in the document in page sequence order.At step 121, a search is made of the first version field of all pagerecords in the document and a determination is made at step 122 whetherthe first version number is equal to the requested version number. Thosepages in which the query at step 122 is satisfied are thus identifiedand at step 123 the file name of each of the identified pages is placedon the list in page sequence. A branch to FIG. 14 processes the list toretrieve the page image files at step 141 and assemble a printfile atstep 142 to submit to the print driver.

FIG. 13 shows the process for obtaining the page image files (new orupdated pages) changed in a version current as of a particular datespecified by the customer. At step 130, a query to the database isfielded to obtain the page characteristic records for all pages in thedocument in page sequence order. At step 131, the date fields of all ofthe retrieved page characteristic records are searched, and at step 132,those certain page records are identified whose date is equal to or lessthan the requested date. For those certain pages identified in step 132,the first version field is searched at step 133 to identify the highestnumber present in the first version field. At step 134, it is determinedwhich of those certain pages have the further characteristic of having afirst version field number equal to the highest number determined atstep 133. For those pages, at step 135 the file name of each page imagefile identified is placed on a list in page sequence. A branch to FIG.14 processes the list at step 141 to retrieve the page image files andassemble them into a printfile. At step 142, the printfile is submittedto the print driver.

Maintaining a document database in the above described manner offersmany advantages to the publisher. For example, if page image files arestored, the relatively slow process of rasterizing the PostScript pagefiles to page image format occurs only once before entry into thedatabase rather than at print time which could be a performancebottleneck. Also, with the inventive process, when changes are made topages in a document, only the changed pages are resubmitted rather thanthe entire document. It can be important to have the opportunity toreprint old versions as well as the latest version; the inventionprovides a technique for doing that in a cost-effective fashion.Portions of a document can be reprinted since the level of granularityis a version of a page rather than an entire document. Note thatinformation about other document pieces such as tabs, binders, inserts,etc. can be kept in the database by providing a page record for thatdocument piece; for print-on-demand, this enables the printfile toinclude a marker for the location of those "external pages." Anotheradvantage is that a print job can be held in a queue if an inventoryitem (such as an insert) is out of stock.

It should also be noted that document storage 16 can be managed so thatinfrequently used documents can be migrated to optical disk or tapestorage but still recalled when a version of a document or book needs tobe printed.

Pages can be stored in various fashions, but if page images of each pageare stored, the fidelity of the printed document or book is enhancedwhen print-on-demand is utilized. There may still be some fidelityproblems if the initial page image file was stored, for example, for usewith a 300 dot per inch printer but is used on a 600 dot per inchprinter at a later time. However, if the same printer is in use, thepage will look exactly the same as it did earlier. To address thepossibility of enhancements to printer resolution, it may be desirableto store the page source file as well as the page image file. In thatmanner, the page source file can be re-rasterized to prepare a pageimage file for the enhanced resolution printer.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference topreferred embodiments thereof, it should be understood that changes inthe form and details of the invention may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for managing document versions to enablethe insertion, deletion, or updating of a page or any sub-component of adocument, and for enabling the printing of any new or old version of thedocument or any document portion, wherein a page file is produced foreach original, new and updated page in said document and documentmanagement data is included in said page file, said method comprisingthe steps of:providing for building page characteristic recordsincluding a page record for each original, new and updated page fromsaid document management data; providing a document management databasefor the storage of said page characteristic records for each original,new or updated page; providing for a delete field in each page recordenabling the setting of a delete flag in previously stored page recordsfor each page to be deleted in a new version of said document; andproviding for a last version field in each page record enabling thesetting of the new version number in said last version field of eachpreviously stored page record whose delete flag is not set.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 further including the steps of:providing for thereception of a print request for a particular version of said document;and providing for the retrieval of a list of said page files from saiddocument management database needed to satisfy said print request. 3.The method of claim 2 wherein the requested version is identified byversion number and wherein the step of retrieval further includes thesteps of:providing for a first version field in each page record foridentifying the first version that includes the associated page andproviding for the identification of certain pages which have thecharacteristic of a number in said first version field less than orequal to the number of said requested version; and providing for theidentification of the requested version pages among said certain pageswhich have the further characteristic of a number in the last versionfield which is greater than or equal to the number of the requestedversion.
 4. The method of claim 1 further including the stepsof:providing for the rasterization of each page file in said document toproduce a page image file of each page; and providing for the storage ofeach said page image file in a document database and a pointer to thestorage location of each page image file in the corresponding pagerecord.
 5. The method of claim 4 further including the stepsof:providing for the reception of a print request for a particularversion of said document; and providing for the retrieval of a list fromsaid document management database of the page image files needed tosatisfy said print request.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein therequested version is identified by version number and wherein the stepof retrieval further includes the steps of:providing for a first versionfield in each page record for identifying the first version thatincludes the associated page and providing for the identification ofcertain pages which have the characteristic of a number in said firstversion field less than or equal to the number of said requestedversion; and providing for identifying the requested version pages amongsaid certain pages which have the further characteristic of a number inthe last version field which is greater than or equal to the number ofthe requested version.
 7. The method of claim 2 wherein the requestedversion is identified as of a certain date and wherein the step ofretrieval further includes the steps of:providing for a date field ineach page record for identifying the date upon which the associated pagewas first included in the document and providing for the identificationof certain pages which have the characteristic of a date equal to orbefore said certain date; providing for the identification of therequested version pages among said certain pages which have the furthercharacteristic of a number in the last version field equal to thehighest number in said last version field in said certain pages.
 8. Themethod of claim 5 wherein the requested version is identified as of acertain date and wherein the step of retrieval further includes thesteps of:providing for a date field in each page record for identifyingthe date upon which the associated page was first included in thedocument and providing for the identification of certain pages whichhave the characteristic of a date equal to or before a requested date;providing for the identification of the requested version pages amongsaid certain pages which have the further characteristic of a number inthe last version field equal to the highest number in said last versionfield in said certain pages.
 9. The method of claim 2 wherein therequested version is identified by version number and wherein the stepof retrieval further includes the step of:providing for a first versionfield in each page record for identifying the first version includingthe associated page and providing for the identification of those pageswhich have the characteristic of a first version field equal to therequested version to obtain only the changed pages in the requestedversion.
 10. The method of claim 5 wherein the requested version isidentified by version number and wherein the step of retrieval furtherincludes the step of:providing for a first version field in each pagerecord for identifying the first version including the associated pageand providing for the identification of those pages which have thecharacteristic of a first version field equal to the requested versionto obtain only the changed pages in the requested version.
 11. Themethod of claim 2 wherein the requested version is identified as of acertain date and wherein said step of retrieval further includes thestep of:providing for a date field in each page record for identifyingthe date upon which a page was first included in the document andproviding for the identification of certain pages which have thecharacteristic of a date equal to or before said certain date; andproviding for a first version field in each page record for identifyingthe first version that includes the associated page and providing forthe identification of requested pages among said certain pages whichhave the further characteristic of a number in a first version fieldequal to the highest number in said first version field among saidcertain pages to obtain only the changed pages in the requested version.12. The method of claim 5 wherein the requested version is identified asof a certain date and wherein said step of retrieval further includesthe steps of:providing for a date field in each page record foridentifying the date upon which a page was first included in thedocument and providing for the identification of certain pages whichhave the characteristic of a date equal to or before said certain date;and providing for a first version field in each page record foridentifying the first version including the associated page andproviding for the identification of requested pages among said iscertain pages which have the further characteristic of a number in afirst version field equal to the highest number in said first versionfield among said certain pages to obtain only the changed pages in therequested version.
 13. An article of manufacture comprising a computerreadable medium having embodied therein a method for managing documentversions to enable the insertion, deletion, or updating of a page or anysub-component of a document, and for enabling the printing of any new orold version of the document or any document portion, wherein a page fileis produced for each original, new and updated page in said document anddocument management data is included in said page file, said methodcomprising the steps of:providing for building page characteristicrecords including a page record for each original, new and updated pagefrom said document management data; providing a document managementdatabase for the storage of said page characteristic records for eachoriginal, new or updated page; providing for a delete field in each pagerecord enabling the setting of a delete flag in previously stored pagerecords for each page to be deleted in a new version of said document;and providing for a last version field in each page record enabling thesetting of the new version number in said last version field of eachpreviously stored page record whose delete flag is not set.
 14. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 13 further including the stepsof:providing for the reception of a print request for a particularversion of said document; and providing for the retrieval of a list ofsaid page files from said document management database needed to satisfysaid print request.
 15. The article of manufacture of claim 14 whereinthe requested version is identified by version number and wherein thestep of retrieval further includes the steps of:providing for a firstversion field in each page record for identifying the first version thatincludes the associated page and providing for the identification ofcertain pages which have the characteristic of a number in said firstversion field less than or equal to the number of said requestedversion; and providing for the identification of the requested versionpages among said certain pages which have the further characteristic ofa number in the last version field which is greater than or equal to thenumber of the requested version.
 16. The article of manufacture of claim13 further including the steps of:providing for the rasterization ofeach page file in said document to produce a page image file of eachpage; and providing for the storage of each said page image file in adocument database and a pointer to the storage location of each pageimage file in the corresponding page record.
 17. The article ofmanufacture of claim 16 further including the steps of:providing for thereception of a print request for a particular version of said document;and providing for the retrieval of a list from said document managementdatabase of the page image files needed to satisfy said print request.18. The article of manufacture of claim 17 wherein the requested versionis identified by version number and wherein the step of retrievalfurther includes the steps of:providing for a first version field ineach page record for identifying the first version that includes theassociated page and providing for the identification of certain pageswhich have the characteristic of a number in said first version fieldless than or equal to the number of said requested version; andproviding for the identification of the requested version pages amongsaid certain pages which have the further characteristic of a number inthe last version field which is greater than or equal to the number ofthe requested version.
 19. The article of manufacture of claim 14wherein the requested version is identified as of a certain date andwherein the step of retrieval further includes the steps of: providingfor a date field in each page record for identifying the date upon whichthe associated page was first included in the document and providing forthe identification of certain pages which have the characteristic of adate equal to or before said certain date;providing for theidentification of the requested version pages among said certain pageswhich have the further characteristic of a number in the last versionfield equal to the highest number in said last version field in saidcertain pages.
 20. The article of manufacture of claim 17 wherein therequested version is identified as of a certain date and wherein thestep of retrieval further includes the steps of:providing for a datefield in each page record for identifying the date upon which theassociated page was first included in the document and providing for theidentification of certain pages which have the characteristic of a dateequal to or before a requested date; providing for the identification ofthe requested version pages among said certain pages which have thefurther characteristic of a number in the last version field equal tothe highest number in said last version field in said certain pages. 21.The article of manufacture of claim 14 wherein the requested version isidentified by version number and wherein the step of retrieval furtherincludes the step of:providing for a first version field in each pagerecord for identifying the first version including the associated pageand providing for the identification of those pages which have thecharacteristic of a first version field equal to the requested versionto obtain only the changed pages in the requested version.
 22. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 17 wherein the requested version isidentified by version number and wherein the step of retrieval furtherincludes the step of:providing for a first version field in each pagerecord for identifying the first version including the associated pageand providing for the identification of those pages which have thecharacteristic of a first version field equal to the requested versionto obtain only the changed pages in the requested version.
 23. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 14 wherein the requested version isidentified as of a certain date and wherein said step of retrievalfurther includes the step of:providing for a date field in each pagerecord for identifying the date upon which a page was first included inthe document and providing for the identification of certain pages whichhave the characteristic of a date equal to or before said certain date;and providing for a first version field in each page record foridentifying the first version that includes the associated page andproviding for the identification of requested pages among said certainpages which have the further characteristic of a number in a firstversion field equal to the highest number in said first version fieldamong said certain pages to obtain only the changed pages in therequested version.
 24. The article of manufacture of claim 17 whereinthe requested version is identified as of a certain date and whereinsaid step of retrieval further includes the steps of:providing for adate field in each page record for identifying the date upon which apage was first included in the document and providing for theidentification of certain pages which have the characteristic of a dateequal to or before said certain date; and providing for a first versionfield in each page record for identifying the first version includingthe associated page and providing for the identification of requestedpages among said certain pages which have the further characteristic ofa number in a first version field equal to the highest number in saidfirst version field among said certain pages to obtain only the changedpages in the requested version.
 25. A computer system for managingdocument versions to enable the insertion, deletion, or updating of apage or any sub-component of a document, and for enabling the printingof any new or old version of the document or any document portion,wherein a page file is produced for each original, new and updated pagein said document and document management data is included in said pagefile, said system comprising:page characteristic records including apage record for each original, new and updated page, said pagecharacteristic records produced from said document management data; adocument management database for storing said page characteristicrecords for each original, new or updated page; a delete field in eachpage record enabling the setting of a delete flag in previously storedpage records in said database for each page to be deleted in a newversion of said document; and a last version field in each page recordenabling the setting of the new version number in said last versionfield of each previously stored page record whose delete flag is notset.
 26. The system of claim 25 further including:means for thereception of a print request for a particular version of said document;and means for the retrieval of a list of said page files from saiddocument management database needed to satisfy said print request. 27.The system of claim 26 wherein said means for retrieval furtherincludes:a first version field enabling the identification of certainpages which have the characteristic of a number in a first version fieldless than or equal to the number of said requested version; and saidlast version field enabling the identification of the requested versionpages among said certain pages which have the further characteristic ofa number in the last version field which is greater than or equal to thenumber of the requested version.
 28. The system of claim 25 furtherincluding:means for the rasterization of each page file in said documentto produce a page image file of each page; and means for the storage ofeach said page image file in a document database and a pointer to thestorage location of each page image file in the corresponding pagerecord.
 29. The system of claim 28 further including:means for thereception of a print request for a particular version of said document;and means for the retrieval of a list from said document managementdatabase of the page image files needed to satisfy said print request.30. The system of claim 29 wherein said means for retrieval furtherincludes:a first version field enabling the identification of certainpages which have the characteristic of a number in said first versionfield less than or equal to the number of said requested version; andsaid last version field enabling the identification of the requestedversion pages among said certain pages which have the furthercharacteristic of a number in the last version field which is greaterthan or equal to the number of the requested version.
 31. The system ofclaim 26 wherein said means for retrieval further includes:a date fieldin each page record enabling the identification of certain pages whichhave the characteristic of a date equal to or before a requested date;said last version field enabling the identification of the requestedversion pages among said certain pages which have the furthercharacteristic of a number in the last version field equal to thehighest number in said last version field in said certain pages.
 32. Thesystem of claim 29 wherein said means for retrieval further includes:adate field enabling the identification of certain pages which have thecharacteristic of a date equal to or before a requested date; said lastversion field enabling the identification of the requested version pagesamong said certain pages which have the further characteristic of anumber in the last version field equal to the highest number in saidlast version field in said certain pages.
 33. The system of claim 26wherein said means for retrieval further includes:a first version fieldenabling the identification of those pages which have the characteristicof a first version field equal to the requested version to obtain thechanged pages in the requested version.
 34. The system of claim 29wherein said means for retrieval further includes:a first version fieldenabling the identification of those pages which have the characteristicof a first version field equal to the requested version to obtain thechanged pages in the requested version.
 35. The system of claim 26wherein said means for retrieval further includes:a date field enablingthe identification of certain pages which have the characteristic of adate equal to or before a requested date; and a first version fieldenabling the identification of requested pages among said certain pageswhich have the further characteristic of a number in a first versionfield equal to the highest number in said first version field among saidcertain pages.
 36. The system of claim 29 wherein said means forretrieval further includes:a date field enabling the identification ofcertain pages which have the characteristic of a date equal to or beforea requested date; and a first version field enabling the identificationof requested pages among said certain pages which have the furthercharacteristic of a number in a first version field equal to the highestnumber in said first version field among said certain pages.